Newspaper Articles

The Morning Call: (San Francisco, California) Nov. 4 1890

THE THEATERS

"The Magistrate" Well Played at the Alcazar

"The Magistrate" was somewhat in the nature of an experiment with the Alcazar Theater company; but, as the result proved, last evening, the demonstration is a success. In all its parts, Pinero's comedy was very well played; its niceties well preserved, and the tendency to descend to low comedy kept well in check. Mr. Julius Kahn handled Mr. Bullamy, the Magistrate of the Mulberry-street Police Court, very neatly, and Mr. L. R. Stockwell, his colleague, was quite in as good form. The difficulty in these characters is to make the fun the author intends without lowering their conventional standard-because, ex-officio, an English magistrate is taken to be a man of breeding and education, and if he has ever the mishap to get "in Bacche plenus," he, at least, "gets drunk as a gentleman." In the cabinet particulier scene Colonel Lukyn (Mr. William Beach) from Bengal, retired, and Captain Horace Vale (Mr. James E. Wilson) of the Shropshire Fusiliers were in capital play. It was quietly done as the occasion required, but full of a ludicrous suggestiveness that convulsed the audience with laughter. In fact, such acting must have been a revelation to most of those present and on that account, being unexpected, all the more piquant and enjoyable. Mr. George H. Trader made a good character of Cis Farringdon, Bullamy's stepson, and Mr. Leo Cooper behaved himself remarkably well as Isadore, the waiter, getting his tongue around the broken English in a nicely flexible manner. The ladies in the cast - Miss Ethel Brandon as Agatha Popham, late Farringdon, who has an object in concealing both her own and her son's age, and her sister, Charlotte (Miss Idalene Cotton), were full of life and color; and the rest played their parts as if in them they had been well rehearsed. "The Magistrate" is a novelty at the Alcazar, and calls into requisition histrionic qualities generally latent in the business of that stage. The exercise is good for the company and enjoyable to the audience.